US billionaires criticise Senator Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax plan

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - A new commercial launched by Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren taking aim at billionaire critics of her wealth tax plan has sparked a war of words with several wealthy heavyweights, including the former CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Senator Warren criticizes Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein for taking home US$70 million during the financial crisis.

Mr Blankfein responded on Thursday (Nov 14) in a tweet that he was surprised to be featured in the ad, since he's not one of of her fiercest critics, adding she's "not my candidate, but we align on many issues. Vilification of people as a member of a group may be good for her campaign, not the country. Maybe tribalism is just in her DNA".

That was PG-rated compared with remarks by Mr Leon Cooperman, the chairman and CEO of Omega Advisors, who has used expletives in his feud with Ms Warren over her wealth tax. He has been on financial news channel CNBC almost daily warning that the stock market will plunge at least 25 per cent if it even looks like Ms Warren is winning in the early caucus states. He describes Ms Warren's "vilification of billionaires' as "bull".

Ms Warren's wealth plan would hit the wealthiest 1 per cent of Americans. She proposes a 2 per cent tax on every dollar of a person's net worth over US$50 million and additional 1 per cent tax on every dollar in net worth over a billion dollars.

That has resonated with her base, who are angry over the financial crisis and the income inequality that has grown since then.

But the number of rich against Ms Warren have stacked up and include Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

And economists are weighing in as well. Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi recently told Reuters that Ms Warren's plan is not likely to bring in the revenue she thinks because billionaires most likely will use every resource they have to avoid paying the tax.